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Tag: sustainable

Going Green Eco-Friendly

Trying to be kinder to Mother Earth

Going Green Eco-friendly. In the last six months I have decided to try to be a lot more eco-friendly and green. I’m finally taking notice of those slogans that say ‘what will be left for our children’. Well, firstly let me tell you:

It isn’t especially easy going green eco-friendly and the it does involve more effort and work.

It isn’t as cost effective as what you usually do.

But the main thing from our perspective is to try to make our household contribute to being greener.

Palm oil

What is it? I asked the same question. It is saturated fat that we eat because it is cheap and used to make a ton of stuff from dog food to laundry detergent.

Well apparently it is very bad and causes massive deforestation, something like around 300 football fields of forest is cut down every hour to make room for palm plantations.

As it would happen some of the decisions I have already made in our household also assist in not using palm oil.

Around the House

DIY Washing Detergent

I’ve searched through many, many recipes on the internet. I was looking for one for sensitive skin as my little ones tend to get a bit itchy and I ended up blending a couple of recipes to suite my needs. Here is what I added:

Grate the soap with your kitchen grater (make sure you give it a good wash afterwards). Mix it all together and put it in a container. Use 1/8 to ¼ of a cup depending on the load. If you want a good fabric softener you can also had ½ cup of vinegar where you would normally put your softener. No smell from the vinegar just a nice smell from the soap and soft clothes with no chemicals.

Wooden Brushes

So a big reduction in the use of hard plastics is one thing that I am aiming towards so I have started with the

Bamboo Hairbrushes

So there are still some components on these brushes that aren’t recyclable but it is a start. got mine on EBay but you can get them from any Eco store.

Bamboo Toothbrushes

Again hard plastic. I have a few different ones. One from ecotoothbrush, then some pretty ones I got on EBay for my daughter. The ecotoothbrush has the added advantage of the bristles being made from bamboo charcoal which provides better cleaning. Whereas the EBay ones the Rainbow rainbow bristles are most likely plastic.

Wooden Scrubbing brushes

The main component is made from bamboo or wood. The bristles are made from bamboo or some other substances that are eco-friendly.

DIY Air Fresheners

In my house I love to have fresh smells happening. I burn incense and have a diffuser but I also like to have an automatic air freshener. Reading some articles lately I do worry about what is actually in the spray that is merrily spraying around our house 24/7 from the automatic air fresheners.

To that end I found a recipe based on baking soda and essential oil within a mason jar as room air fresheners, they are ok but aren’t very strong. Recipe here by SmashedPeasandCarrots

What I am still on the hunt for is a way to hack the automatic sprayers? I want to be able to spray from a container housing my own handmade air freshener. I will make it from a perfume like substance of witch hazel and essential oils. If you have a way or know a website please comment below.

Rubbish Recycling

Soft Plastics – This is a new concept for me but since starting it the amount of rubbish in our bin has reduced greatly. So basically any plastic that you can crunch in your hand can be recycled. You can find your closest location here at RedCycle, only drawback is you have to store them and take them to the supermarket but I normally do it once a week when I’m popping in to buy the odd thing.

Compost – We put all food scraps into our compost bin in the back yard. I always found it annoying that I had to put the scraps into a plastic bag and then take it to the compost bin and empty but found a way around that – biodegradable bags so easy and they just compost away with the scraps.

Recycling – So we all have a recycling bin but ours is normally overflowing every fortnight so having reduced my normal waste by using soft plastic recycling we have decided to try the Return and Earn program. Speaking to my in-laws they are using it and say it is great. I did a bit of research and you can even get paid straight into your PayPal account. See here to see how it works

We now have a bit tub on the back deck that we put all recyclables with a bar code into after rinsing. Will see how it works.

Food Storage

Freezer Bags – reduction of plastic is the name of the game so we have started to use glass containers to freeze our meat instead of freezer bags. Ikea have a great cost effective range. The only down side is that you need plastic between portions if you don’t want to use the whole amount in one meal.

Drinking Straws – Again reduction of plastic I purchased a great bundle of stainless steel straws with cleaning bush which the kids adore.

Shopping Bags

Obviously all the supermarkets are going bag less, normally I do online shopping and since the bags have been removed it is a HUGE pain as it all just comes in a big crate and you have to unpack it whilst the staff member is waiting. For online they want to charge you the 15c per bag every time but I figure I pay enough money for groceries without paying 15c per bag, never lone every time I shop.

For the times that I do go the supermarket I have string bags for my groceries and then reusable produce bags for my fruit and veg.

Personal

Menstrual Cup – To reduce waste in landfill I lot of friends have been using a menstrual cup for years but I have only recently started to use one and wish I had known about this from my mid-teens. So easy to use and better from the environment. There are a wide range on the market – take your pick but whatever you do you should definitely try it! You can read all about it here

Conditioner – Personally I haven’t washed my hair with shampoo in like 15 years or so I only ever use conditioner. I read somewhere it was much healthier for your hair as it doesn’t strip the natural oils. Anyway another way I’m trying to be more environmentally friendly is to use a conditioner bar as opposed to buying the conditioner in the hard plastic containers. There are many on the market but I purchased one from Lush you can also purchase separately a tin to keep your conditioner bar in. I must admit I haven’t been game enough to try it yet but it is on my list of things to try.

Clothing – For me I like materials that breath and I don’t tend to buy a lot of fabrics that are man made but lately I have made a concerted effort to buy 100% cotton.

Accessories – This summer I have even gone for a more natural material for my handbag. Yup I decided to get rid of the faux leather and plastic bags for this summer and go cotton and straw. Hot fashion tip – I’m hoping it will take off!

So there you have it the ways we are trying to be green and eco-friendly! Slowly, but surely, I am trying to find other ways to in which we can be kinder to our environment.